Evans: ‘Merle’ for a girl evokes sophistication

I got a correspondence from Jim Ross of Omaha.

“Cathy Nelson and I write and produce interactive murder mysteries set in the 1940s on the Fremont Dinner Train,” he said. “Our plays reference famous actresses of that era; none are as obscure to our audiences as Merle Oberon.  Most think “she” is a “he” (a la Merle Haggard), which surprises the owner of the train, Bruce Eveland, whose grandmother and aunt were named Merle.  What is the origin of Merle?  Was it ever a popular name?”

Merle is the French word for blackbird. It’s also a French surname, showing that one’s ancestor was noted for whistling. The medieval French thought a blackbird’s call sounded like whistles.

French immigrants brought the surname to America and England. One Englishman with the name was William Merle, who wrote novels in the 1830s as “William de Merle.” He sometimes signed letters as “The White Blackbird,” playing with his name’s French meaning.

By 1850, turning last names into boys’ first names was an American custom. The first examples of Merle as a male given name are found that year in New Orleans, with its many families of French ancestry.

Merle steadily increased as a name for boys, probably because it sounded like the more popular “Earl.” By 1880, it was among the top 500 boys’ names in the United States.

Merle was almost never a girls’ name before 1880. That year, Henry James published his most popular novel, “The Portrait of a Lady.” One of its main characters was Madame Merle, the American-born widow of a Frenchman. Though her first name is Serena, that’s mentioned only once in 767 pages.

Parents in England and the United States responded by naming daughters Merle. It was a different but not too different alternative for Pearl and Muriel. Some were also attracted to Merle because of its French meaning.

In England, where Merle was never common for boys, people came to see Merle as exclusively feminine. That’s probably what inspired Merle Oberon’s mother to call her Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson when she was born in Bombay in 1911.

In this country, Merle’s high point for girls was No. 293 in 1903, when it was briefly more common for girls than boys. However, parents of sons never stopped using it. Its top rank for boys was No. 170 in 1918.

Though Oberon’s fame gave her name a boost for girls in the 1930s, there were still more American boys named Merle that decade. Among them was Merle Haggard, born in 1937.

Merle Oberon was one of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses, but she died in 1979. It’s not surprising that younger people first think of Merle Haggard when they hear “Merle.”

Merle is a dual-gender name with widely contrasting images. A male Merle is often expected to be a good old country boy. A female Merle conjures up fantasies of exotic sophisticated beauty for old movie buffs.

It’s a great example of how the same name can have very different images depending on your personal experience and interests.

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